Creating a Full-Time Sysadmin Position at a School?

Old_Mountain_Man asks: "I have been working at a K-8 school for the last two school years, as a volunteer through an Americorps program called the Montana Technology Corps. In theory, I am here to teach teachers and students how to use technology, but because of the need and my ability to do so, I have become an unofficial Systems Administrator. We also have a contracted Systems Admin that comes in once a week, and works 30 hours or so a month. After this year, the Tech Corps position will no longer be available to the school, so something needs to be done to keep the IT systems of the school functioning. I am going to propose to the school board that they create an official, full time systems administrator position, and to hire me for that job. Are there others out there that got their jobs similarly? How do you convince a board that they need to start budgeting for this? They have obviously taken the plunge to getting this technology in the school, so how do I convince them that they need somebody here to maintain it?" "We have about 375 students, and probably 40 or so staff that use the computers. We have a lab of 25 machines, workstations in each classroom, a laptop cart, four smart-boards, six networked printers, and six servers hosting files, applications, Exchange and an Isaserver. In all, this is about 170 machines that need to be taken care of. There's no way the contracted systems admin could keep up with this, while working only 30 hours a month, so I feel the school needs somebody here full time.

What I am looking for is specific information regarding how many IT support people are needed for this kind of setup. I wonder if there are papers/reports that break down how much support time is needed for different systems that I could take to the school board.

In addition any advice on how to shape my presentation to the board would be useful."

Comments

Take on more schools

[eln]

That's a fairly small school. They already have a roving sysadmin, which seems like the right approach for a budget-strapped district with such a small number of machines per school. If the roving sysadmin is not able to handle the load, propose that they hire a second roving sysadmin for the district. I don't think you'll get very far offering to work full time as a sysadmin for just one small school.

Explain to them exactly what they really have now.

[ReverendLoki]

Seems to me one of the best things you can do is explain exactly how much technical support they have right now. List out all of the duties you are performing and give ballparks for how many hours you spend on each any given week or month. List separately what the traveling SysAdmin's duties are, and hours devoted to each. For good measure, give a couple of common emergency scenarios, and what it would take to dig out from under them. Remind them that they soon won't have anyone doing your set of tasks. You're also going to have to give an idea how much someone filling that job can expect to ask for compensation, of course keeping in mind that there is a salary gap between the academic and the corporate world. Still, quote both ranges.

Having never made a presentation like this to a school board, I can't give you much advice as far as format goes, I'm afraid. But as far as content goes, it sounds like you've got a good start on it already. Hopefully you'll at least convince them to increase their staff, if not create a full time position. Maybe consider alternative setups - can they get by with a part time SysAdmin, and a full time Asst. Sysadmin, or Operator type position at lower pay?

Good luck with your endeavors...

Wrong approach

[Spazmania]

How do you convince a board that they need to start budgeting for this?

You don't. You watch the tapes of the old board meetings, figure out which board member is most likely to have a clue what you're talking about and then you convince her directly. Bringing along the rest of the board is then her game in which you're just a player.